Cambodia leads to Saigon surprises!

Well, a lot has happened since I last wrote. We were in Sihanoukville and decided that we wanted to see one more place before we carried on to Vietnam. Amy (Tynee), Vickie and I decided to go to a little town called Kampot for a few days while the others went on to Vietnam. Amy D. only has a few more days before she has to go to Japan for a job so she wanted to get Vietnam in before she had to leave. We took an interesting taxi with some Cambodian men. We had broken English conversations with the cutest old man in the world. He had a great set of teeth for a Cambodian! We got to Kampot and got a room with a TV, it was great to watch TV again. We only had HBO, but still it was something to watch. We wandered around the town for a bit. It's a little French built town and it's very run down, but with a little work, it would be gorgeous again. The people weren't as friendly as other places, but it was still fine. There was a cute river through the town so we wandered around there and then decided to go back to our room and watch TV...Yah! The next day we took a pick-up truck to Bokor Mountains. We were in the back and it was a very bumpy ride. It took about 1 1/2 hours to get to the top on a really bumpy dirt road winding around the mountain. It was fun at first to be bouncing around, but then it got tiring. We finally stopped to look at the old abandoned French buildings. The mountain was an old French hill station. Then we went jungle trekkin for 2 hours through dense jungle. The path was so small and we were getting slapped by trees and bushes. It was very wet and dewy...It looked like an actual jungle and was very cool. We didn't see any wildlife though. Our guide was making weird noises the whole time so maybe he was scaring them off?? We finally got the end and saw a dried out waterfall. It would have been really cool with some water. Then we took the truck to the hill station and wandered around all the abandoned buildings. It was like a ghost town and pretty cool. An old casino/hotel was the highlight. Very spooky! Then we took the long journey back and had to withstand the bouncing around again. It was painful and my back hurt the next day!

The next day started our Saigon Surprises journey. It was very crazy. We took a taxi to the border called Chao Doc. It took a few hours again on a bumpy dirt road. We were going through some really small towns that were shocked to see 3 white girls. Our taxi was dodging cows and pigs the whole way and accidentally hit a pig that was trying to cross the road. It got up and walked away, but still it was one of those things that make you realize where you are. Where else would you hit a pig? We got dropped off on the Cambodian side and had to go through customs and immigrations that consisted of wooden and metal shacks. I felt very safe! Ha Ha! We walked over to the Vietnamese side and right when you step into the country, you know you are somewhere else entirely. Vietnam is crazy. The customs and immigration took so long and no one was very nice to us. They all looked quite serious and scary. When we finally passed the paper work, they told us to walk. We needed to find a bus that would take us to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). We met about 20 motorbike taxis that were trying to scam us into paying an absurd amount of money. We finally go the price down to a reasonable number and hopped on the bikes and off we went into Vietnam and into the traffic for 30 minutes. One thing we know about Vietnam is that most people are trying to scam you for more money. We have to be very strong footed and never let your guard down. It's very exhausting...Even the children try to scam you for a few cents. The motorbikes ended up taking us to their friend's bus service that wanted $10 per person. We insisted that we needed to get back on the bikes and go to the real bus station. So, finally they agreed and took us. We got bombarded at the bus station and finally got a bus ticket for $3. We didn't know what we were in for! A crazy woman was attacking us with water and telling us to get on the bus. The bus wasn't leaving for an hour, but we had to sit there in the hot bus while she ran around getting water and seating people. Another really crazy girl got on the bus and immediately made friends with Vickie. She kept coughing, so now we are worried we were in contact with TB or the Bird Flu or something. Not really, but there is a chance! She was babbling on to Vickie in Vietnamese and writing notes to her. A drunk man stumbled in and began fighting with the crazy girl for about 2 hours of our journey. He finally passed out and stopped the yelling. Those are the times I wish I knew what they were saying. I wonder what the drunk man would have to say to the crazy girl! Another woman/man (not sure) came in and undressed in the back and proceeded to strap about 100 packs of cigarettes to her body with rubberbands. She wrapped them all over her legs and waist and then passed them to another man for him to strap on. We figured out that these people had something to do with the bus. The woman/man was taking money for tickets and seating people, so she apparently ran the bus. When the bus finally started on it's way there was a whole system of things going on. Another woman sat in the back and told orders to the man who was hanging out of the door for 6 hours. He occasionally screamed out the door and took money from someone on the street while the woman/man through things out the window at the people on the street. Sometimes the bus would stop and pick up a whole load of things and put them in the aisle or on top and an hour later stop and throw them down at someone on the street. We are thinking there is something weird going on, like smuggling or something...You think?? The woman/man finally got rid of all her cigarettes and would strap more on...Who knows what was going on. We finally made it to Saigon in the end and found a hotel. This one has a TV also, how cool is that!

Saigon is full of surprises. Every corner you turn is interesting. Every few minutes you see something weird and it registers and then you say, "Oh, look at that!" and shrug it off. The traffic is crazy and crossing the street is hazardous to your health. Motorbikes are everywhere and traffic lights are few and far between. You just have to walk slowly and hope for the best. The bikes will go around you, but you have to stay at the same pace or else they will misjudge and hit you. The city is also full of "great" smells. Every few minutes you get a smell of something that makes you gag...It's fun!

We went to the War Museum yesterday. It was impressive with tons of pictures from the war. It had pictures of children effected by the Agent Orange that the US used on the forests. The children are so badly deformed. It's really sad. They had deformed fetuses in a jar on display, not so nice to look at.

We ran into 20 yellow men that were running around on a scavenger hunt for one of their friend's bahelor parties. They came from Hong Kong and it was quite amusing. They all had yellow suits on like Uma Thurman in Kill Bill. We ended up running into them at night while we were sitting outside a bar. They had a whole entourage with them at that point. They ended up getting kicked out of the bar, but it was amusing fo rhte time they were there.

The Vietnamese so far have been very different from other cultures. I don't trust them at all. I'm sure they are not all money scamming people, but it seems that way. They won't give you right change until you figure it out and then go, "Oh! Sorry!" even the kids to this. Oh well, just keep my guard up I guess. Things are really cheap though, so that's good for my budget.

Tomorrow I think we are headed for Nha Trang. We are traveling north until Hanoi and then over to Laos. Nha Trang is a great beach place we hear. We can only spend short amounts of time away from the beach, so we need it now after all this craziness. I'm sure there will be many more Surprises to come in this country.

"You'll always remember your night in...Uh...Where are we?"
A quote by Vickie Bunny one night in Kampot, Cambodia